Shinobi Exchange
by BobidiBob
Summary: The fifth Hokake has developed an exchange program with Sunagakure. Gaara Temari and Kankuro are assigned to Konohagakure, where they get mixed up and form new teams with Ino, Sakura and Shikamaru. Kakashi and Anko are involved too.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own „Naruto" or any of the characters and/or places from the Anime and/or Manga.

**Authors Note:** I performed a spell check on this and it has not shown me any mistakes but since I'm not a native speaker it might occur that there are mistakes in the text. Those mistakes might be grammar mistakes or just some words that are written the wrong way. (Chapter Update Note: I took the advice from my „beta reader" ;) and corrected some mistakes) If someone notices something like that it would be nice if I would be informed. However I hope you like this work of mine. It's set during time-skip and BTW: I tried to hold the OCCness down as much as possible and I'll update as soon as I can. So have fun reading!

And of course I would appreciate a review.

**Warning:** This whole story is not meant to be a story about adult themes but there might be some parts that are not suitable for kids. This might also contain some lines that could be looked at as a very soft version (yeah.. it's really not such a big deal...) of „shojo-ai", so if you feel uncomfortable with this – don't read! If you read this story – don't complain about this! You have been warned!

**Shinobi Exchange**

**Part 1**

**Mixed Up**

„Temari, Kankuro, Gaara! Since Sunagakure has the intention of remaining peaceful and friendly relations to Konohagakure our people will be assigned there more often. For now it's just a little shinobi exchange program we developed with the fifth Hokage. You will stay there for a few weeks and go on missions with them. They already sent three of their people to us, so lets not disappoint them. Go!"

This was not a bad thing for those three. Temari would have never admitted it but she was happy about this assignment. Looking back she had quite a nostalgic feeling. The situation wasn't as peaceful and also not friendly, but there was one person from back then she wanted to see again.

Gaara probably had the most important reason to be delighted about this exchange. He had a strong feeling of having to – at least partly – pay back a dept that will, as he sees it, never totally vanish. It was a Genin from Konohagakure who had shown him a new way of life – as if someone had given him a second chance, a new life, and an opportunity to get what he desired most – love. Even if it takes some time to really understand it, it is a dept of a lifetime.

For Kankuro it wasn't so bad either. He had worked together with some shinobi of that village in the past even saved the life of more than one of them – including a pretty smart but lazy Chuunin. And even though he was not really feeling a special connection to all this, he felt positive about the assignment too. At least it meant that there was something to do.

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It was late. Ino was walking back home - looking at the sky and her thoughts drifting away. She has had quite a long training sessions, but it was fun. She did well. The Fifth herself has skipped work for a day to help a bit with learning the Shosen jutsu.

„The first few steps to handle this technique are now not such a big problem anymore - thanks to Tsunade-samas support and the weeks of training with Sakura. Sakura. It is very strange to be only around her for weeks - all day long. The good friends we once were - the enemies we became. To be honest: It's not like I hate her. She was the one who broke up with me. Sasuke-kun. You are the source of all this and you don't even care. Now that you're gone the rivalry between Sakura and me is even more painful. Normally I can easily suppress this feeling but now... I guess that's why caring about your look also helps you in another way. If you concentrate on your outside you don't have to care too much about your inside. Sakura, training with you is really a two way ordeal."

As she got to her parents house she heard familiar voices. She could identify them easily. Her father had guests well known to her: Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Choza.

As it usually occurs when they meet in the evening the three of them had a few drinks and they were joking around a bit.

„Do you remember that one time when Shikamaru-kun made you go home early?"

„Ahh... Yeah, kids can be troublesome."

„Right! My boys tendency to have a meal or two more every day will make me a poor man one day. But since Inoichi has a girl he has other problems. HaHa... Right?"

„Yeah, sometimes I think it would be easier to have a boy. You just don't know how to cope with certain situations."

„Yeah! Girls are troublesome, aren't they?"

Ino sneaked inside the house, went to the bathroom and after taking a shower she walked to her room. Laying on her bed she couldn't help thinking about what her father just said, but since she was dead tired the sleep overwhelmed her.

„Girls are troublesome..."

„Since Inoichi has a girl he has other problems..."

„It would be easier to have a boy..."

„Ino, you wretched piglet..."

„Troublesome..." „Problems..." „Ino-pig!"

It was three in the morning. Ino woke up having an unpleasant feeling. Still lying in her bed the upper part of her body moved quickly upwards. It was as if someone just removed all the air in her room. She felt a strong pressure on her cheast. She tried to fight this feeling but it was hopeless. A tear ran across her face and after falling from her chin it was soaked up by her blanket leaving a small stain. She was close to totally bursting into tears but something avoided it, as if it was her fate to cope with the pain she felt in her heart.

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In front of the gates of Konohagakure Kankuro, Temari and Gaara stopped for a few moments. Gaara turned his head towards the little cottage next to the gate. The three of them entered the village. Gaara walked straight to the cottage which was occupied by two men,

one had some kind of ribbon going from one side of his face in a horizontal line across the nose to the other side, the other ones face was nearly half covered with his hair and he was wearing his forehead protector like a headscarf.

Kankuro watched the site. He saw a little boy with a long scarf running right in his direction. Since this kid was looking over his shoulder he wasn't able to notice that somebody was in his way. Two other kids – a boy and a girl – were following him, shouting at him. The boy turned his head around and noticed Kankuro standing right in front of him but it was too late to stop and he crashed into him. The other two froze.

„We are sorry!"

„Konohamaru-kun! Is everything ok with you?"

„I'm fine!" the little boy said with a big smile not even looking at the person he just ran into.

The three of them ran away as careless as they came.

„That's why I don't like kids like that!"

„Don't bother too much about them brother."

Gaara came back having received the orders to report to the bureau of the Hokage and so they did as they were ordered to.

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This night was hell. Ino got up. She hasn't had much sleep this night. She went to the bathroom to do something about the horrible look this night had given her.

„Ino-chan, there is an order from the Fifth to come to her office this morning."

„Ok, I'll hurry."

After making sure that no one would notice the effects of this night, Ino had her breakfast and went off to the Fifths office.

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Gaara knocked at the big wooden door. A voice shouted: „Enter!" and so they did.

The room was full of books and undone paperwork. In front of them, just about two meters away sat a bigbreasted lady who looked as if she was in her twenties. She had blonde hair and some kind of gray hash symbol on her forehead. Temari looked a bit irritated at Gaara, who showed no reaction, then at Kankuro, who had the same kind of look as she had.

Before anyone was able to say something it knocked again. „Come in!" the woman shouted making clear who this office belonged to.

The door opened and a guy wearing the typical leaf-shinobi vest entered the room. His clothes were not very special he wore a gray shirt, dark brown shorts and the typical shinobi shoes and equipment. His dark hair was lazily bound together on the back of his head. The only thing that made his look a little bit different from the average person was the fact that he had his forehead protector attached to the left sleeve of his shirt. The unmotivated look in his face said more than words could discribe. Temari held back a smile.

„Hey."

„Shikamaru. Have you seen Ino on your way?"

„Hm... Nope. I guess she might be here any minute."

It knocked again and a loud „Come!" made everybody shrug. Ino entered the Room directly followed by Anko who seemed as if she had to hurry preventing the door being closed right in front of her.

„Hokage-sama!" Anko said like a soldier waiting for orders.

„So... Seems as if we are still missing two people."

It knocked again and another loud order to enter the room made everyone startle. It was Sakua who entered the room.

„I'm sorry Tsunade-sama. I'm late."

„At least you're not the last one." was the answer, and just in the second this was said someone appeared in a cloud of smoke on the window sill.

„You're late Kakashi - as always!"

„Yeah... Well... my horoscope said some pretty bad things about getting up early today."

„Whatever... So, since everybody is here now I'll tell you what's going on. We made up a shinobi exchange program with Sunagakure and so those three – I guess you all know each other – came as a first experimental group." she said, smiled and went on,

„Kakashi will be responsible for the whole program due to the fact that I have a lot of paperwork to do. He'll give reports on the development of the program and he'll also be the one giving you the missions. He'll choose your missions – that means you will not get just any random ones. Because of this I gave him an office for the time this program lasts. This means he'll not go on missions with you. The rest is for him to tell.", she finished her explanation.

„Hm... well... how can I start...? Right! I decided on the teams. I read all of your files and came to the following conclusion: Sakura, Ino, Gaara! Shikamaru, Temari, Kankuro! The first team will work with Anko-san and the leader of the second team will be Shikamaru-kun. Now go and do something with your teams, get to know each other a bit better – teamwork is important! Tomorrow you'll get you first missions."

Even though Kakashis face was covered with a mask one could easily see the friendly expression in his face. Tsunade nodded.

„Meeting dismissed." she said and added „Our visitors from Sunagakure will stay at the same housing as during the Chuunin Exam. Have a nice day."

She smiled and looked over to Kakashi who then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. At this point everyone else also left the bureau, leaving the Fifth with a desk full of papers.

----------

Gaara, Ino and Sakura decided to do some training because there wasnt much they could do together, so this seemed to be the logical choice. Anko left them alone, she had some things to prepare - as she put it. The three of them went to a training ground deep in the woods which was made for shuriken and kunai practice.

This wasn't supposed to be real training, this was more like a last resort in a bad situation. This team was not the way a team should be. What was Kakashi-sensei thinking as he made this team up. Sakura and Ino had spend quite some time together in the weeks before but they were far from being able to team up. And Gaara? Gaara wasn't able to understand those two girls at all, the emotions they expressed towards each other were so confusing for him. Yet after being together with them for just a short time, since he wasn't that familiar with relations between people, it was as if someone had put his brain into a washing machine – and this was no gentle wash.

„So you hate each other?" Gaara asked with a calm voice that had nearly no emotion to it while he stood behind the two girls on the training ground.

Suddenly it was totally quiet. One could hear the wind blowing through the leafs. Inos whole body was trembling. She wasn't any longer able to hold back the memory of the torture that befelt her the night before. Everything came back. In just one second the whole pain she was usually covering with an impression of self confidence came back. She sank to her knees and turned her head away from her teammates. There was this pressure on her cheast again.

Sakura walked over to Ino, got down on her knees and looked right into the other girls face. Inos face was drowned in tears. She wanted to turn around. She wasn't willing to show Sakura this kind of emotions – it was nearly like losing to her. Sakura grasped Inos shoulders and stopped her. She put a hand on Inos cheek and turned her head so that she could look right into those sad blue eyes. Ino looked up to Sakura closing those tearily eyes, then she felt a soft kiss on her forehead and received a long and tender hug.

„Aren't you normally the strong one Ino?" Sakura whispered with a sweet touch to her voice into her friends ear. Ino said nothing.

„You know, no matter how long and how hard we fight, you'll always be in my heart – as my friend!", Sakura added.

Ino put her hands around Sakuras waist and returned the hug. They stayed like this for a while.

As they finally parted Sakura looked into Inos eyes. She smiled and Ino smiled back.

„Everything ok again?"

Ino nodded, stood up and removed the dirt from her legs.

Gaara was now more confused then before. What was that?

----------

„So you are our leader." Temari said to Shikamaru in a slightly challenging way.

„It's troublesome but that's how it is." he answered with a voice that – as always – had a touch of annoyance to it.

„We'll see how you lead _us_."

„Don't you worry about that, the last time we met I had to save _your_ life."

„Whatever..." Temari replied somewhat embarrassed.

„What are we up to now?" Kankuro interfered.

„Going to some restaurant, I guess. Eating something and then... well... we'll see. It shouldn't get too troublesome."

Kankuro wasn't really satisfied with this answer but the fact that he had no better idea kept him quiet. Temari tried to imagine where the three of them might end up and Shikamaru just watched the clouds while walking to the restaurant he had visited so often with Ino, Choji and Asuma.

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End file.
